Small Victories: We’ve Recovered All the Jobs Lost During the Recession

The May employment report wasn't anything special—the U.S. added 217,000 new jobs and unemployment held at 6.3 percent—but it did give us a milestone of sorts. We have now recovered all of the jobs lost during the Great Recession, and then some. It took a while, but we got there, America. We did it.

Of course, the country has grown a bit during the past half decade, so our employment-to-population ratio is still in the pits. (Some of that can be chalked up to retiring baby boomers, but still.)

And ultimately, many of the jobs we've added pay far less than the ones they replaced. Anyway, see you next jobs day!

Jordan Weissmann is Slate’s senior business and economics correspondent.